Switched from Corning connectors to pre-polished ends on a big job today and it saved my wrists

I've always been the guy who says pre-polished ends are for rookies. But after terminating 48 drops on a new apartment building near downtown last week, my left hand was cramping up something fierce from all the cleaving and polishing. A coworker let me try his single-mode pre-polished connector kit for the last 8 runs. No polishing, no crap with epoxy, just strip and crimp. Time per drop went from about 9 minutes down to 4. The light readings were within 0.1 dB of my hand-polished ones too. Has anyone else switched over and seen similar time savings on multi-unit jobs?

3 comments

3 Comments

joelt7019d ago

Hey man, are you saying I've been doing this the HARD way for like ten years just to impress nobody? I had the same "real techs polish their own" attitude until my thumb basically gave me the middle finger after a 200-unit job last fall. Now I'm over here pre-polished all the way like some kind of convert at a tent revival. I swear my left hand has a little less hatred for me every time I don't have to pull out the polishing puck. Feels weird admitting it, but my wrists are way happier now and my OTDR traces look just as pretty.

lucasjackson8d agoMost Upvoted

Honestly the wrist thing is real but there is a downside nobody talks about. Those pre-polished connectors have a plastic ferrule most of the time and they can warp if you're in a hot attic or direct sunlight all day. I saw a whole patch panel go bad after a summer install because the ferrules expanded just enough to mess with the light path. Hand polished ones with ceramic don't have that issue. So yeah time savings are huge for your hands but you might be trading that for long term reliability if the building has no AC or it's a rooftop situation. Just something to test before you go all in.

jesse_williams6219d ago

@joelt70 preachin the gospel now! My wrist thanked me after that last 48-unit job too.